Saturday, October 12, 2013

Just after the merger of sCO and sUA's Passenger Reservation System, Jeff Smisek said, "Functionality first, design second." He was referring to Continental's outdated website. I believe that the change is just around the corner. A few weeks ago while I was checking in in Portland, I saw something exciting. United was testing out a new look for their check in Kiosks. Have a look:

The start screen has a much more direct approach, asking customers to get started from the first page.

This is the flight view, show flights, equipment, seats, and times.

The final screen, showing boarding time and gate information. The system also alerts you if you are precheck.

I was super excited, and then I realized that this design matched one of the designs in a #flyerfriendly ad:

This #flyerfriendly ad shows a new website, that seems to work beautiful on the iPad.

So a few days later I asked United if they were going to update their iOS app for iOS7, and they said, "Stay Tuned." As a guess, I believe they are about to release all new apps, launch the new website, and roll out the new kiosks very quickly.

All I can hope at this point is that they let me have a sneak peak at the new site!

But, hey, I'm just some guy who likes to look at airplanes, so what do I know?